JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Gaming Frontiers has always been a bit of a strange bird. Part preview, part excerpt, part original material, the quarterly digest continues on seeking an identity.
The strengths of the book, to me at least, include the fiction. Bury Me in Freeport is a good short story and features one of my favorite settings. Another strength is the short adventures. While the computerized map for Where Its Too Cold to Scream isn't as readable as it needs to be due to the black and white format, it does provide some nice new undead to throw into a game even as The Serpent Stone and That Which Hungers provide the GM with some 10th level adventures that can be slotted into most settings with a minimal amount of work.
Other strengths include articles like Trick Shots and Vital Spots that help provide rules to augment the flow and feel of combat, as well as Project World X, where we get information on an 'open game world' started earlier in GF. The material in Uncharted Territory sometimes works well like The Quiet Ones, a wererat faction and Tropical Island Mythology with its deity write ups.
On the Horizon needs better timing or to be broken up into two sections, one covering material already out and one for material to come out in the future. While it's great to get a look at Atlas Games Dynasties and Demagogues with an excerpt on voting in the d20 system, and Welcome to Armageddon 2089, the new Mongoose Game coming out soon, The Book of Hallowed Might and the Quintessential Psion have been on the shelves for months.
One thing that this book doesn't need is material that's old and free on the web. Take Reinforcements, Real Castles and Caves in your Games, an article by Monte Cook that appeared on his web site in July 2002. <a>http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly17.html</a>
People have a hard enough time justifying the $20 for a digest and accuse the excerpts of being nothing more than advertising now. Reprinting free articles isn't going to change anyone's mind.
There were some other issues. For example, proof reading. Normally I'm not too concerned with this as it happens everywhere regardless of how much you check over something but when the date of the terrorist attack is marked down as Sept. 11Th, 2002 instead of 2001, in the Mongoose article, well, it bothers me.
The layout took a beating too this issue. I don't know what it is but Bastion's Faeries has the same problem with borders wrapping over text, making certain parts of the book not readable. It doesn't happen every page but it happens enough to be aggravating.
There's a lot of material in the typical Gaming Frontiers digest and this issue is no different. The layout errors and reprinted free material may not sit with everyone though and some just won't like the whole excerpts of books already on the shelves. If you're not a huge purchaser of d20 products and want to know what companies like Bastion, Atlas, Malhavok and Inner Circle are up to or want some quick adventures or support for Forbidden Kingdoms or Deadlands, this book has something for you.
The strengths of the book, to me at least, include the fiction. Bury Me in Freeport is a good short story and features one of my favorite settings. Another strength is the short adventures. While the computerized map for Where Its Too Cold to Scream isn't as readable as it needs to be due to the black and white format, it does provide some nice new undead to throw into a game even as The Serpent Stone and That Which Hungers provide the GM with some 10th level adventures that can be slotted into most settings with a minimal amount of work.
Other strengths include articles like Trick Shots and Vital Spots that help provide rules to augment the flow and feel of combat, as well as Project World X, where we get information on an 'open game world' started earlier in GF. The material in Uncharted Territory sometimes works well like The Quiet Ones, a wererat faction and Tropical Island Mythology with its deity write ups.
On the Horizon needs better timing or to be broken up into two sections, one covering material already out and one for material to come out in the future. While it's great to get a look at Atlas Games Dynasties and Demagogues with an excerpt on voting in the d20 system, and Welcome to Armageddon 2089, the new Mongoose Game coming out soon, The Book of Hallowed Might and the Quintessential Psion have been on the shelves for months.
One thing that this book doesn't need is material that's old and free on the web. Take Reinforcements, Real Castles and Caves in your Games, an article by Monte Cook that appeared on his web site in July 2002. <a>http://www.montecook.com/arch_dmonly17.html</a>
People have a hard enough time justifying the $20 for a digest and accuse the excerpts of being nothing more than advertising now. Reprinting free articles isn't going to change anyone's mind.
There were some other issues. For example, proof reading. Normally I'm not too concerned with this as it happens everywhere regardless of how much you check over something but when the date of the terrorist attack is marked down as Sept. 11Th, 2002 instead of 2001, in the Mongoose article, well, it bothers me.
The layout took a beating too this issue. I don't know what it is but Bastion's Faeries has the same problem with borders wrapping over text, making certain parts of the book not readable. It doesn't happen every page but it happens enough to be aggravating.
There's a lot of material in the typical Gaming Frontiers digest and this issue is no different. The layout errors and reprinted free material may not sit with everyone though and some just won't like the whole excerpts of books already on the shelves. If you're not a huge purchaser of d20 products and want to know what companies like Bastion, Atlas, Malhavok and Inner Circle are up to or want some quick adventures or support for Forbidden Kingdoms or Deadlands, this book has something for you.
